The metamorphosis of steel towns from rust to robust does not always play well with the voters. That's especially true when it involves rethinking outdated government structures and embracing shared services.

Yet in places like Cuyahoga County, with 59 separate municipalities serving a shrinking population, a more innovative and inclusive approach to local governance is critical. Such cost-effective civic collaborations can reduce redundancies and stabilize budgets gutted by state cuts, the foreclosure crisis and job loss.

The bad news: Pushback is still a force to be reckoned with despite expected savings -- as Euclid Mayor Bill Cervenik has discovered.

After successfully regionalizing the Euclid jail through a merger with Cuyahoga County's jail, Cervenik now wants the city to join the Southeast Emergency Communications Center. It will be a centralized police dispatch operation that will also serve Bedford, Bedford Heights, Maple Heights and Garfield Heights. Cervenik estimates the shared dispatch service will save Euclid $300,000 a year.

But the merger also means lost jobs -- 12 full-time jobs, and four part-time positions -- so Cervenik is getting pushback from others in the city. That's understandable -- and the city needs to work to minimize the human cost.

Yet hard decisions have to be made as property tax revenues plummet and municipal budgets tighten.

When the county reappraised property values in 2012, Cervenik said, real estate taxes collected by the city of Euclid dropped by more than 25 percent. And so it was last July that Cervenik lobbied the county to assume control of Euclid’s cash-strapped slammer. In March of this year, the county did just that.

The takeover fit into the county’s master plan to establish a regional jail system. And Cervenik estimates the move saves the city $900,000 annually.

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If Euclid becomes part of the Southeast Emergency Communications Center, Cervenik argues that besides cost savings, the city will gain access to technology it could not afford on its own.

Construction of the center in Bedford Heights is scheduled to begin in mid-to-late June, according to center administrator Mark Milam, and will take about six months to complete.

The county has kicked in $1.1 million. If Euclid joins the merger, it would pay $25,000 in initial operating costs, Milam said, and then a certain portion of the annual budget. That amount has not been calculated, but it is "far less than what such services cost them now," Milam said.

Euclid City Ward 2 Councilwoman Madeline Scarniench argues the merger will not just kill jobs, but also will raise poverty levels in the city. She notes that Bedford Heights is nowhere near Euclid.

“Response time will not be affected,” Milam said. “The perception is that the firefighters and police are moving here. They stay in Euclid. Only dispatchers are moving.”

The police and fire chiefs are onboard. Now Cervenik needs five votes from the nine-member council to make the merger happen. The next meeting is May 14.

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